Kyaik-ithi-yo Pagoda

Kyaik-ithi-yo Pagoda

According to Mon tradition, the name is a corruption of Kyaik-ithi--yo being derived as follows; In Mon language the word "Kyaik" means " pagoda" and " yo" " to carry on the hermits head"; in Pali the word" ithi" means a hermit and therefore the name means " the pagoda carried on the hermit's head; the tradition is that after the hermit had obtained the hair from the Buddha, he was carrying it on his head inside his hair knot till he found a boulder which resembled his head, and so he built the pagoda on its enshrining the relic, substituting the boulder for his over head. The pagoda, about 15 feet high, is situated on the hill of the same name on the ridge between Sittaung and Thanlwin. It is built on a huge, almost egg- shaped, rounded granitoid boulder perched on the very summit of a projecting and shelving tabular rock, which in itself is separated several feet from the mountain by a rent or chasm, now spanned by a small foot bridge of iron and on the further side drops perpendicularly into a valley blow.